Monthly Archives: May 2016

By Dave Turner

The Fourth Generation Mustang 1994-98

1994/5 Mustangs

In view of the trouble Ford USA had in the late ‘80s when first trying to replace the third generation of Mustang the next attempt was taken with care. When it was realised in the 1980s that the next Mustang could be a Japanese inspired, front-wheel-drive creation various groups such as motoring writers, clubs and many Ford dealers themselves let Ford know their feelings in no uncertain terms. That car in the mid ‘80s became the Ford Probe and the old Fox body third generation Mustang carried on until 1993. This writer can clearly state that the two cars are so different as I have owned both a ’96 Probe 11 and a ’91 Mustang GT for around twenty years and love each one for totally different reasons.

Certainly the new fourth gen. cars had to have a bit more refinement than the tyre shredding straight line blast of the 5.0 V8 Fox Mk 111 but at the same time must retain rear wheel drive and the satisfying low down torque of a big V8. Despite the origins of the Fox based cars going right back to the Ford Fairmont and Mercury Zephyr of 1977 it was dusted off once again, stiffened up more than a tad and presented for 1994 as the 4th incarnation of Mustang, now designated FOX-4, or SN95. Having a much more aerodynamic shape, it was over 2 inches longer and significantly heavier. A choice of just two bodies, coupe or convertible came with either a base 3.8 V6 or 5.0 V8 GT power units. No hatchback was included as these were extremely difficult to provide with sufficient rigidity without designing a completely new basic structure.

Fords Special Vehicle Team, known as SVT, created the Cobra for 1994, employing a 240hp version of the 5.0 V8. A total of 5,000 Coupes and 1,000 Convertible Cobras were produced in 1994 and this must have impressed sufficiently for it to be chosen as the Pace Car for that years Indy 500, one thousand replicas were sold, all finished in Rio Red. Little change took place for the 1995 models, although mid-year a GTS was quietly produced. In effect this was the 5.0GT but without various regular GT items such as the sports seats, rear spoiler and fog lights. However a Cobra R was also produced in 1995 and this boasted a 300hp 351 V8 and just 250 were made, sold only to race licence holders to try to deter speculators simply buying and storing examples. They came in white only, all sold within two and a half days of announcement.

With the new Mustang came a flood of contemporary toys and models, all those recorded so far appear to have originated when the cars were current, rather than as retrospective collectibles.

1994 Models

AMT start us off again and they offered contemporary 1:25 plastic promos and kits for the GT Coupe, the latter coming in either glue together form or ‘Snapfast” that simply clip together. Monogram also issued plastic kits for a GT Coupe, an Indy Pace car and a ‘Boss’ Coupe. From Japan came the Tamiya 1:24 plastic kit that could be made into either the Coupe or Convertible.

A range called Detail Cars based in Italy appeared during the 1990s and no less than eight 1:43 versions of a ’94 Mustang were listed that included Coupes, Convertibles in various colours and an Indy Pace Car. None have ever been located, and a 1999 catalogue of the range does not include any of them. An even larger selection, but one that was produced, came from Universal Hobbies/Jouef/Eagles Race in 1:18. Some carry “Jouef Evolution” inscription on the base while others say “Universal Hobbies” while the catalogues include the logo “Eagles Race”. Well over thirty different versions of their Coupe and Convertible models have been listed, most of them differ only in their colour and decal treatment. One variation features “Boss” decals, the original ’94 Boss was a SVT concept but the decal treatment seems to have been available as an aftermarket ‘dress-up’ line. Although the 1996 Jouef catalogue shows Boss models with the concept cars front end, the example in this writers collection is simply the regular GT, with Boss decals and different wheels and so depicts a regular GT with the dress-up kit.

The ‘Boss’ was also covered by Maisto in 1:24 whos budget priced diecast models came as kits or assembled. It appears to be the only ’94 coupe they issued although GT Convertibles and an Indy Pace car were also available, the latter employed the same casting as the regular Convertible but featured Cobra decals on the front fenders, in which case the front end should be different. The models deck lid spoiler was slightly different and the hefty aero rollover bar with pace Car lights was included however although this version doesn’t seem to figure in any of their catalogues. On a much smaller scale Johnny Lightening included a huge range of different coloured Boss Coupes in the late ‘90s as well as some equally wildly coloured Cobra Coupes – at least they got the front end something approximating that of a Cobra.

Mattel are invariably associated with the small Hot Wheels toys but in complete contrast, from 1962, they made numerous large scale forms of transport for their collectible ‘Barbie’ figures including a reasonably accurate 1:8 scale Mustang Convertible in 1994. It has to be admitted that this was in fact an accessory in the Barbie Doll toy catalogue, so if you are not too proud to have her in the collection this represents quite closely the V6 engined Convertible, down to the “running horse” fender badges and the 15” cast aluminium wheels that were an option on V6 cars. Rather bizarrely however the vehicle can be considerably lengthened by simply pulling apart the front and rear, creating room for a couple more figures in the ‘rear seat’

Minichamps waited until 1997 to launch their ’94 GT Convertible and very nice its was despite being closer to 1:45 than 1:43. It too came in several colours but otherwise they are exactly the same. Very similar to the Minichamps are the New Ray Convertibles, the charitable assumption would be that they are so accurate that they have to look the same! Much bigger is a remote controlled GT Coupe from New Bright with a one piece plastic body plus a hefty nudge bar at the front as part of the base to guard against collision damage!

it’s hard to decide if the RoboCop Mustangs that came in two sizes should be included in this discussion of model Mustangs, but apart from the rooflights they seem to represent a ’94 Coupe acceptably, albeit being a tad short aft of the ‘B’ post. A more traditional diecast toy came from Welly with their 1:33 Gt Coupe that featured a pull-back motor working on the rear axle.

1995 Models.

Identifying just which are models of ’95 Mustangs as distinct from ‘94s is generally a case of using the description provided by the models maker. In the case of the ’95-only Cobra R there is no argument of course!
Compared to 30 years earlier, actual promotional issues were extremely infrequent by the mid 1990s, but AMT did offer 1:25 plastic Mustangs in both kit and promo form, the kits issued in ‘95 were for a GT and a Cobra, both as Coupes, the promo was a GT Coupe. Revell offered a 1:25 plastic kit for a ‘Boss’ Coupe while Tamiya did a similar size kit for the Cobra R Coupe. Another plastic ’95 came as a battery powered GT Convertible from Fun Rise in 1:21 scale. This is really a well made toy albeit featuring a fuel filler on both sides. Majorette launched a 1:32 “Ultra Custom Series” in 1995 but it appears that the Mustang Coupe included in the range was simply given a wild decal treatment.

Testor produced a kit for a GT Coupe, possibly in their pre-painted diecast series while diecast models of the Cobra R came from New Ray and Speedy Power. Despite being aimed at the toy market complete with a pull- back motor the latter is quite a good model featuring the correct rear spoiler, bulges on the hood and the wheels unique to the Cobra R.

1996-8 Mustangs

The old 5.0 V8 motor that dated back to the small block 221 Fairlane of 1961 was finally retired for 1996. A single overhead cam version of the modular 4.6V8 that first appeared in the 1991 Lincoln Town Car now featured under the hood of the Mustang GT. New “GT 4.6L” front fender badges identified the ’96 GTs while the SVT Cobra got a full-blown double overhead cam version and proved extremely popular, 10,000 examples of Coupe and Convertible Cobras certainly took some sales away from the regular GT. The new engine forced a re-designed cross member and front suspension to be created but the most noticeable external feature of the ’96 Mustang are the triple section rear light assemblies that replaced the horizontally slotted ’94/5 pattern.

The 3.8 V6 engine continued as a less expensive option to the V8s and now featured the set up from the Thunderbird Super Coupe but minus the supercharger. Very little else changed through to the new for ’99 Mustangs although the pod on the facia top that housed the clock was deleted for ’98 versions.

1996 models.

AMT once again did us proud with not only a promo for ’96 but plastic kits for both GT and Cobra Coupes. A minimum of updates were necessary of course, the rear lights being the most significant, the new front fender GT4.6L badges were appropriate decals, the wheels now the correct for ’96 five twin spoke pattern while the ’96 licence plates were now stick-on and show ‘Colorado’, they are on my promo example anyway. Slightly larger and looking very similar in its details is a battery driven plastic GT Coupe from Empire, this even boasts proper rear light ‘glass’ and underside detail that is identical to that on the AMT. If you wanted a Convertible Cobra Monogram issued such a kit alongside the AMTs Coupe.

Diecast ’96 Mustangs came from Mattel with their 1:64 Hot Wheels GT Convertible, much more acceptable than their usual bizarre creations, it is marked ‘1996’ on the base. Larger at 1:43 comes a reasonable Coupe from Realtoy. This came in various stages of stock to ‘way out’, the example to hand boasted an assortment of spoilers on the roof and trunk plus some apparition coming out of the centre of the hood but once given the ‘back-to-stock’ treatment it became a surprisingly nice Coupe, the absence of the correct GT rear deck spoiler on the model as it came left the end result as a V6 Coupe, complete with the optional five twin spoke wheels, two of the inserts for which were unfortunately missing to start with.

1997 Mustang models

AMT provided the inevitable contemporary 1:25 plastic kits for both GT and Cobra Coupes, one kit of which came with a video. To mark the Mustangs 50th Anniversary a re-issue of the GT Coupe took place in 2015 and this sometimes is listed as a Monogram kit.

Auto Art offered big and well detailed 1:18 die casts of ’97 Mustangs although they favoured the exotic end of the listings with Saleen and Super Stallion versions. The Saleen Mustangs were not simply tuning specials but specialised production vehicles sold only through Ford dealerships. They began with 1984 Mustangs but those for the late 1990s were generally based on a production V6 Mustang, although for an extra $10,000 one could start with a SVT Cobra. The Saleen S351 employed a highly tuned 5.7 litre Windsor V8, coupled to substantially modified suspension. Auto Arts Saleens come with all the necessary details, the Convertible version features a fixed tonneau over the rear seats complete with the appropriate ‘Speedster’ decals. With the Super stallion, Auto Art has highlighted a significant Ford concept vehicle that began life as a 1995 Cobra but was turned into this development project by the Ford SVE (Special Vehicle Engineering) team under John Coletti. Among the many features of the real car, was its independent rear suspension and this along with most of all the other unique details has been faithfully created in the model.

1997 was relatively early in the convoluted history of Racing Champions, starting in 1989, subsequently developing into RC2 after taking over numerous other operations and then becoming part of Tomy. A quite acceptable 1:55 scale Cobra Coupe was issued in 1997, featuring the post ’96 hood with twin dummy airs-scoops that accompanied the new higher 4.6 V8. Further diecast Cobras came from MotorMax, their 1:42 scale Convertibles being marked 1998 on their base but the open car allows the pre-’98 dash with clock pod to be clearly seen. At least two wheel patterns have been used on different issues of this.

1998 Mustang Models

It appears that as this line of Mustangs continued to the end of its run in 1998 the only models to appear were of the Cobra. Even AMT don’t seem to have ticked the box. However, in their 1:43 Road Champs series Yatming produced a Cobra Coupe in several guises. Confusion seems to have entered the development however as one carries “SVD” decals while both feature the “GT4.6L” decals on the front fenders – appropriate for the GT but not the Cobra. Finally, Motormax included both Cobra Coupe and Convertible in their 1:24 range of inexpensive toys.

By Maz Woolley

The latest release in the Atlas Dinky Toys series is a casting we have already seen used for the Swiss Post liveries version. It has also been seen before in the continental Atlas Dinky series.

#181 Volkswagen

The model replicates a later model being painted light blue and fitted with silver dish wheels. The box still features the original painted metal wheels and the picture shows the darker blue shade often seen.

This replica has been nicely produced even if this casting has been used before. It seems amazing now that Dinky had this model in production from 1956 to 1970 by which time it was completely obsolete.

By Maz Woolley

The XJ12C was built for three years between 1975 and 1978 after first being shown at a Motor Show in 1973. Based on the short wheelbase XJ model it had longer doors welded up from two existing parts. The coupe was available with six cylinders too which sold in larger quantities that the V12.

Finished with a then fashionable vinyl roof the car certainly looks the part of luxury coupe. Indeed it was chosen as John Steed’s car in the contemporary revival of the Avengers on TV, albeit with a body kit fitted to it.

I believe that the model is again sourced from Ixo/PCT and has Atlas tampo printed on base. A similar model was sold in a small series by Ixo at Nuremberg in red with a beige vinyl roof so collectors who cannot afford that scarce release may be pleased to buy this one.

The model is very good except for the inclusion of the “leaper”, on this a right hand drive car. Although often fitted as aftermarket additions the XJ was the point at which the leaper was no longer fitted in the UK due to safety legislation. The badging is neatly printed, grilles and wheels well modelled, and the dashboard inside is excellently printed. Even the little black rubber over-riders at the front are painted on.

By Maz Woolley

Oxford Diecast continue regular releases of new models to 1:43 scale with a regular supply of new castings and modifications to existing ones. They also remain very competitively priced here in the UK.

DSP004L Daimler SP250 Open Racing Green

This model has already been seen in three other versions. It is available in white with hood up and red with hood down as well as in a Police version. Here we see the racing green “limited” version which is to be followed by another unlimited racing green standard edition. The model captures this car well and it suits the racing green colour too.

Badging and grille are very well done.

The lacquered silver plastic rear lights are effective.

The interior is well moulded but it looks to me that there is still some gear from the police version of the car shown under the dashboard?

Taff from Oxford Diecast informs me that the limited edition came about because a late change to the interior colour was specified but by that point models were already in production. Rather than scrap these models the limited number made with the cream interior have been sold as a limited series. When the regular DSP004 models appear they will be in racing green with a red interior.

Reader Andrew Davies has pointed out that the registration number on the regular run has also been changed.

Oxford Diecast officially released information about the models that we will see during the remainder of 2016 and into the first quarter of next year. This release includes a mixture of new castings, recoloured ones, and the gradual migration of existing models into other scales.

Some of the items that have caught the editor’s eye include a new 1:18 Heinkel Trojan Bubblecar which one hopes will make it into 1:43 and 1:76 at some point. There are four new 1:87 US cars including a pre-war Buick Special. In 1:43 scale the new Rolls Royce Corniche Convertible will surely be popular. In 1:76 there are a whole series of new models including modern facelifted Range Rovers, the F-Pace Jaguar, and for classic car collectors the MGB, Triumph TR4 and Stag. The Leyland Sherpa van finally appears in 1:76 scale – it would be nice if this was made in 1:43 as well at some point.

Military collectors are far from neglected with some new Land Rover variants as well as the first Tank Oxford have offered, a Churchill Mark III well suited to the tank transporter already in their range. And finally Aircraft collectors will find new items to choose from too.

The compete listing is included below for readers. It is great news for collectors that Oxford go on investing in new castings as well as producing new and attractive variations on existing models.

Readers who which to see the drawings of the new models and UK prices these can be found at www.oxforddiecast.co.uk in the section showing 2016-2 releases.

IXO make a very commonly available Hindustan Ambassador model in taxi and police livery as well as a standard sedan as shown above. Since this is an inexpensive model and readily available it makes a great donor car for conversions as it is essentially a late 1950s Morris Oxford. The six cylinder version of the Oxford was the Isis and from the scuttle back it was an Oxford, only the front clip was lengthened to accommodate the big 2600cc inline six cylinder engine, not that different from that fitted to the Austin Healey but with a single SU carburettor. This car was available with either an automatic gearbox or a four speed manual with overdrive which provided amazingly long legged highway cruising ability. There were two version of this generation of Isis, a wood bodied Traveller and a saloon. There never was an Isis version of the all steel four door Traveller that appeared in the Oxford range.

To create the Isis saloon, I had only to cut with a jeweler’s saw the front clip off and extend it with some thin metal bridge work inside and final shaping with my favorite material for this, J B Weld, an epoxy metal material that is great for shaping, filing, sanding and serves as a great glue as well. The grill had to be created as the Hindustan has a much simplified grill of horizontal bars only. To do this I used some photoetch mesh and some wire solder of the correct gauge to create the two arched bars. The solder is silver in color replicating chrome and to preserve this look I coated it with some clear lacquer. I preserved two of the Hindustan driving/fog lamps which are part of the bumper.

The Traveller project was a bit more complex, requiring the fabrication of a rear roof and the body sides and tail gate. Wood basswood from the hobby store served as the wood sections and final finishing was with some clear lacquer to give a bit of gloss. Wheels on both had to be painted body color and trim rings added as per my guide, Google images and an original factory brochure gave me some appropriate color choices.

So, two more created in the never ending quest to replicate or acquire in 43rd scale all the BMC, Triumph, BLMC cars of my youth.

By Maz Woolley

Readers may have seen leaflets and adverts for a DeAgostini partwork in the UK based on Norev produced Dinky replicas also being sold by Atlas in their Atlas Dinky series. DeAgostini seem to have sold the first four parts and then stopped with a letter to subscribers saying that this was due to “unforeseen circumstances”. This is not the case it appears that the circumstances were entirely predictable since this was clearly a test marketing exercise. In fact comments on a French web site by Atlas’ Dinky expert suggests that the series will launch properly in September.

It seems very strange that DeAgostini should act in this way since Atlas Collectibles web site says that Atlas is part of DeAgostini. Some collectors cancelled the Atlas series as the DeAgostini one is several pounds a model cheaper. The DeAgostini Dinky models already seen have all been seen before in the Atlas Dinky range, albeit in different colours/liveries.

So what have Atlas sold so far in the series:

111 Triumph TR2A in racing livery #25 in pale blue

555 Ford Thunderbird in red

480 Bedford CA Kodak

197 Mini Traveller white

157 Jaguar XK120 Coupe

The models sent by DeAgostini are better packaged and have a part work magazine which is heavy on pictures and has only limited information. I have two of the models from this series and as shown below the baseplates and boxes have been modified to say DeAgostini and not Atlas.

555 Ford Thunderbird

The Atlas model was painted in blue a rare South African shade but the DeAgostini model is in a dark red as pictured on the box.

480 Bedford CA Kodak

The Atlas model was produced in Dinky Toys livery. In this case it is in yellow with Kodak livery.

Since DeAgostini allow single parts to be ordered as back orders online, or on the telephone, after general release to subscribers this series might appeal to the collector who just wants one or two of the models.

By Maz Woolley

With the pre-war name SS swept away due to it’s unfortunate connotations all the post war cars became marketed as Jaguars. The Jaguar Mark IV was essentially the same as the pre-war SS 3.5 Saloon. This car had a coachbuilt body fitted to a separate chassis. Though the performance from it’s 3.5 litre engine was good it had a reputation for being heavy on fuel.

The Atlas model again has Atlas tampo printed on base and seems to be typical of PCT/Ixo supplied models. Again a nicely printed dashboard exists and door cards are well replicated with winder and door handles printed. The massive Lucas Headlights are well modelled as is the grille and a small leaper is fitted which is correct for this vehicle. The two tone paint work is well represented with tampo printed chrome masking the divides well at the waistline.

I did not expect to stay with this series but the models produced so far are all done to a standard higher than many other subscription series/partworks and have covered well chosen variants. It will be interesting to see how many parts Atlas intend to make.

By Maz Woolley

Again Auto Cult’s releases mix the obscure with the every day. Auto Cult’s models are resin cast to 1:43 scale in China for Germany.

#05006 Intermeccanica Murena 429 GT

Two Americans, Joseph “Joe” Vos and Charles Scwendler partnered the Italian company Intermeccanica to produce a luxury two door estate car similar in some ways to the Reliant Scimitar from the UK. The long bonnet concealed a Ford 7 Litre V8. The car had premium leather seats for all four passengers, a stereo sound system, air-conditioning, electrically operated windows, and high quality carpets in the floor area. Shown for the first time at the New York Auto Show in 1969 at the booth of the Murena Motor Corporation. The car cost over 14.000 US$, and despite its style and exclusivity between 1969 and 1970 just ten cars were sold before Joe Vos and Charles Scwendler called it a day.

#06008 Mercedes-Benz C111 Sacco-Studie

The Classic uncompromisingly angular C111 with its gull wing doors often in vivid orange is a well known Classic which trialled the Wankel rotary engine which promised much but never made it into routine production vehicles at Daimler Benz.
This version was a car styled by Bruno Sacco and used as a test car in the C111 programme. This neat car has shades of Opel Junior and Ferrari Dino styling and although pretty lacks the presence of the better known C111 cars.

#07002 Otto Mathé Fetzenflieger

Otto Mathé was well-known in Austria in 1950s car racing circles. His “do-it-yourself” car made from VW components and a 130 bhp Porsche engine created a “beast” which upset even significantly better financed factory teams from time to time.
In 1952 he had created one of the first mid-engined sports cars. The car was skillfully covered by an aluminum skin with open access to plugs and carburettors.

Today the car is on exhibition at the Automuseum PROTOTYP in Hamburg

#12002 Citroén 350 Belphégor Guinard

Here is a rather more prosaic vehicle, but a rather attractive one. In 1965, the French manufacturer Citroen produced its first truck and production of trucks under the Citroen name continued until the 1970s. This truck was nicknamed Belphegor, though officiall, it was simply called the type 350.

The truck had idiosyncratic styling which was not to everyone’s taste but which I find distinctive in an era when everything was becoming box shaped. Like a BMC FG small windows at the height of the feet to enabled the driver a better visibility on the street and allowed easier parking.The type 350 was the smallest version in the modular system with a four cylinder petrol or diesel engine.

Many fire services used this model where the driver´s cab was integrated in the body which had a second row of seats fitted leaving storage space for equipment behind. A large roof track allowed further tools to be carried. This vehicle started in service in the fire department “D´incendie et de secours du haut-rhin” which later became Departement SDIS 68, of the city Colmar.

By Robin Godwin

A while back I discussed the re-launch of Solido, with one of their first cars being a 1:43 Volkswagen Beetle. Regrettably, it was produced by PCT (Premium Collectibles & Trading, parent of Ixo and the source of models for numerous partworks) and was not an original Solido casting in any way. At the end of that article, I said that I thought the new Greenlight (GL) 1:43 “Gremlins” Beetle also looked like a partwork. Proof arrived in the mail today with a DeAgostini partwork model for Brazil. The series is called “Veiculos de Servico do Brasil,” no translation required. You can see from the pictures that there have been some minor modifications to change it from the 1967 Beetle used in the 1984 Gremlins movie, into a 1977 VW Fusco as used by the telephone service in Brazil (this info is printed on an included card). There are different tampo printed vents, wheels, mirror arrangement, and of course, the addition of a roof rack, but it is the same casting, with the same base. PCT is tampoed on the base of the Brazil issue, along with Volkswagen Fusco, so a slide was inserted into the die to accommodate this. Hard to see in the pictures, but the licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Entertainment appears in black tampo on the black plastic base of the Gremlins model, along with Greenlight in white.

Perhaps this goes some way to explain why GL chose to use an existing mould from PCT rather than create their own – money saved by not having to produce your own dies can be put towards the cost of licensing and, apparently, turn a profit at a price point of around $15 US. The GL lineup (1:64/1:43/1:24 and 1:18) is getting crowded with licensed vehicles from various films and TV series, which presumably all require fees of some sort, so models produced by someone else at a contract price may be a very smart business solution. But from this collector’s point of view, it is a real disappointment, in that it is a casting that has been used many times before. GL issued a military Willys Jeep recently in 1:43 which I found tempting, but I’m pretty sure it is from PCT as well. Since I already have the Ixo version, I won’t bother.

There is a large and growing group of “ex-partwork” companies that issue castings already used in partworks as their own lines – Whitebox, Edicola, and now Greenlight and Solido among others, although these latter two may have some originals in their lineup, particularly the current GL 1:64 scale issues (but, GL started with High Speed castings). It will be increasingly difficult for regular die cast manufacturers, i.e., those who make their own dies, to compete with the many old partworks floating around at what appear to be bargain prices. The number of partworks series is increasing all the time, so it could be that, even though Norev, Corgi and Oxford Diecast have supported that market, PCT is the future of die cast models, or at least the main player (perhaps excluding Mattel). If you doubt that statement, then have a look at the sheer volume of models in various partworks coming from PCT at their website http://premium-collectibles.com/partworks.html Tough to compete, given that virtually all these partworks have a second life in derivative ranges.

Editor’s note. Things have also happened the other way with Corgi supplying moulds for re-use by Atlas, Corgi and Solido providing castings for a partwork series, and of course Norev models are used for partworks and Atlas series as well. Robin’s point is taken that anyone funding a die for their sole use may struggle to compete when PCT, Universal Hobbies, Hongwell, High Speed or Hongwell make a casting of the same model and make it available at a contract rate to a number of others.